Friday, September 16, 2005

A footnote to the staggering Presidential comment on the victims of rape in Pakistan

For readers outside Pakistan: The quote mentioned in the post below appeared just a couple of days after we'd had 3 days in which 5 children were reported raped in different incidents across our country. The youngest, a girl of 3, was also bruised & battered (she sustained fractures in both arms and a leg) and was burnt in places with cigarette butts. Hmmm … Wonder if they were in it for Canadian citizenships or US Dollars???

And do not forget that these were only the ones that got reported. At yesterday's 'protest' by various human rights organizations, in Karachi, there was a poor couple (Sumar Mallah, a fisherman, and his wife) whose 7-year-old daughter had been raped lately. They had not even been able to file an FIR with the police, until they were helped by someone from that bunch with an agenda (NGOs) that our President dislikes. Sumar said that he'd been offered money in return for silence, but had refused to accept it. What a fool to miss an immigration opportunity!

5 Comments:

Sophia Hasnain said...

Thanks for sharing your disgust with others. I do not think that writing to our dictator president (as suggested on some emails and blogs) would make any difference, particularly if ISPR is filtering it. I don't care what he is saying and to whom, because world over it has become "jis ki lathi us ki bhains" from Bush to our Musharraf to Sharon to even week sections of society that suddenly become powerful when they rape and butcher young kids and innnocent women.

Writing to him, implies that we think we can change his thinking; that the president, with an otherwise liberal outlook, just had a slip of tongue; that the president's mindset can be changed.

He uttered these words because he doesn't have a fear of his people. Our society's liberals have strengthened him because he appeared anti-mullah. Unfortunately our liberals are still with him and even today's WAF statement is just a formality where WAF seems to be more concerened with the the role of civil society in govt projects and initiatives. This seemingly liberal president has legitimized every wrong and has done nothing to undo the wrongs of the other dictators.

I am sorry but he is a dictator and as long as he is in power we will be hearing such "gems" on all the disgusting issues in this society. If we want a change, why dont we ask him to step down???

I am stunned, ashamed, embarrassed and apalled that a man who is supposedly our head of state could think these things, let alone utter them. Now he says he was misquoted by the Washington Post. Yeah right!!!

It is really so saddening, depressing and disillusioning. We have had a woman PM who did nothing for women or children's rights. This man took over saying that he wanted to clean up the government. Six years later, should I continue to hold my breath? Even those who have given him the benefit of the doubt all these years, no longer have any hope after his recent statements in New Zealand and the US.

I pretty much agree with what everyone else said except just a little note to Sophia. Even if Mush does step down do you think we'll have anyone better to fill in his shoes? Politicians are all the same no matter what they say or do.

Democracy or military rule, its all about power. *sigh* I've lost hope of the Pakistani situation ever changing.

words of wisdom

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Bertrand Russell

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.Noam Chomsky

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.Albert Einstein

Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.John S. Spong

DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.Max Ehrmann